Kachikwu, Olorunsola bag NAEE fellowship award

  *Iledare dismisses job losses over oil sector reforms

The Minister of State Petroleum for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, former director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Olsten Olorunsola and Executive Secretary of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Dr Aliyu Gusau have bagged the Nigerian Association of Energy Economics (NAEE) distinguished fellowship award. 

The National President of NAEE, Prof Wumi Iledare, who revealed this at the 11th NAEE annual conference in Abuja, explained that the award was meant to encourage Nigerians and institutions that made huge contributions to the development of energy and power sector in Nigeria.  

He said: “We have categories of awards. The distinguished fellowship award is an award given to someone that has made major impact in the energy sector over a long time. It is also for someone that has had a distinguished carrier and has been able to articulate policy to move the energy sector forward. The association gives this to the Executive Secretary PTDF, Dr Aliyu Gusau. He was at the Petroleum ministry under late Dr Lukman and was also the secretary of the Oil and Gas Industry Sector Reform Committee (OGIC) in 2000. We think he has done well in his capacity as the Executive Secretary of PTDF. Basically, Dr Gusau has the capacity and intellectual ability to discuss energy policy issues.”

Iledare added that the award to a former Director of DPR, Osten Olorunsola owing to the roles he played in the final passage of the Petroleum Governance Industry Bill (PIGB) by the National Assembly. 

“Olorunsola has been the arrowhead of petroleum industry reform efforts for many years. In 2008, he was in the ministry of petroleum and was a major driver of PIB in 2012. He also played critical role in the final passage of the PIGB in 2018. He was Vice President, Gas in Shell for many years and headed the economic and planning division of Shell for many years.

We recognize his contributions and have seen his presentations cited by intellectuals on economics of energy and power industry. These are the reasons he was given an award for his contributions to the sector,” he explained. 

NAEE also gave corporate awards to the Emerald Energy Institute and Centre for Petroleum Energy, Economics and Law of the University of Ibadan for their high turnout of over 200 energy professionals that specialize in economics of energy.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, bagged the corporate public sector distinguished award for his efforts at ensuring transparency of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Prof Iledare, who is also the Director, Emerald Energy Institute of the University of Port Harcourt, also allayed fear over job losses that oil and gas sector reform would cause. 

His words: “I think the fears about possible job losses as a result of the implementation of the oil and gas sector reforms is trivializing the whole essence for reforms. I say this because no one has shown any empirical evidence to prove the reform will lead to job losses. The question to ask is whether what we have now is enhancing the potentials inherent in the oil and gas industry. The answer will be a resounding no. We all know that exploration is down, production is down, reserve is down, cost is rising, interest rate is up, unemployment rate is up, these all show there is a missing index, which means that there is urgent needed to rejig the industry in order for it to move in the right direction. The essence of policy development and articulation is to introduce new directions especially when things are not happening for the benefit of the people.”